Sound Devices' 664 Mixer Analysed...

Sound mixer George Flores, CAS, has recently added Sound Devices’ new 664 Field Production Mixer to his set up.
Flores is currently working on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which follows the exploits of The Gang, a group of friends who run Paddy’s Pub, a relatively unsuccessful Irish bar in South Philadelphia.
After employing the 664 as the master recorder to help capture audio for the Warner Brothers/TNT police drama Southland, Flores incorporated the 664 into his workflow for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which has similar production challenges.
"With its high volume of inputs, the 664 worked tremendously well on the set of Southland," explains Flores.
"As we ran around the city, it was able to sufficiently perform under situations where you had to run off batteries. We also like to have everything on our sound cart at all times and the 664’s light footprint enables us to do so. Its overall design, combined with its stellar performance, makes the Sound Devices 664 the logical choice for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia."
He continued: "We shoot in practical locations and sets that aren’t always meant for shooting sitcoms. Utilising three to four cameras, the crew often shoots individual close-ups of two people simultaneously, which can be physically challenging for the boom operators.
"Also, while the show’s creators like to shoot structured, scripted performances, they like to keep camera angles and setups flexible enough to try new ideas on the fly. The 664 allows us to capture audio that reflects this, resulting in finely crafted comedic dialogue with some interesting curve balls."
"The combination of boom and lav mics wins the day for us," he says. "We wire all the cast members and yet boom 95 percent of the show, so the preamps and Sound Devices’ CL-6 inputs for both the hardline and wireless booms have worked very well."
The CL-6 Input Expander, a companion accessory to the 664, adds six analog line-level inputs to the mixer. With the 664 connected to the CL-6, users can record all 12 input channels and four outputs, for a total of 16 tracks.
Sound Devices' 664 features six ultra-low-noise, high-dynamic-range preamps that accept mic- or line-level signals and include analog peak limiters, high-pass filters, input trim control and direct outputs on every channel.
Featuring full analog audio paths, the 664 also has numerous digital capabilities.
Inputs 1 and 6 can be selected as AES3 or AES42 inputs for digital microphones.
The 664’s analog output compliment includes four output buses. The L and R buses are on balanced XLR, 10-Pin and TA-3M connectors and on unbalanced TA-3M or 3.5mm connectors. Secondary output buses X1 and X2 are available on balanced TA-3M connectors. Users can route inputs and buses to four AES3 connections for eight digital outputs on the XLR and 10-pin connectors.
The 664 can record up to 10 tracks of 16- or 24-bit polyphonic or monophonic broadcast WAV files to SD and/or CompactFlash cards. All inputs and outputs are individually selectable for recording, enabling the mixer to record all 10 channels of audio. With its dual card slots, it can record content to either or both cards simultaneously, with the added ability to assign different tracks to each memory card.
The 664 includes a high-precision timecode generator/reader for multi-camera and double-system sound applications.
Flores’ setup also includes the Sound Devices 744T for back up, Lectrosonics IFBs for private line booms and utilities, Comtek for public line, and a base of 10 channels of wireless, including Lectrosonics SM Transmitters, Venue Series Receiver Systems and SRb-Quadpack Receivers. Power is provided by a modified PSC LiFE Battery.
www.sounddevices.com
(IT/CD)